By Collins Gathogo
Apple announced the release of its youngest member of the family – the new iPhone 11 – at its big iPhone 11 launch yesterday in San Francisco. The iPhone 11 was launched alongside the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, which are Apple’s top-end handsets this year.
The new phone will set you back $699 (about KES 73,000). You can pre-order the iPhone 11 from September 13, and it’ll be shipped to you, or you can actually buy it for real as from September 20. Most networks in most countries will offer the device, as it’s far from an exclusive handset.
The new phone is available in purple, white, yellow, green, black and product-red. The rear of the phone is glass, and there’s a lightning-connector on the bottom edge. Its dimensions are 150.9mm x 75.7mm x 8.3mm, and it weighs in at 194 grams. It is also water-resistant, with an IP68 rating. Basically, this means that you can comfortably submerge it in water of about 2 metres in depth without a worry.
The iPhone 11 has a big focus on the camera this year, and that’s because it’s a dual-lens sensor, for the first time on the cheaper iPhone. It has a 12MP wide camera with a 26mm lens, and that is paired with a 12MP ultra-wide camera. That second snapper has a 120-degree field of view.
Night Mode has returned for low light conditions, and it comes turned on automatically on the iPhone 11. It’s a similar affair to Google’s Night Sight on Pixel phones, and the on-stage example seemed quite impressive. Video modes include 4K video recording, slow and time-lapse. Apple also says it has improved image stabilization on the new phone too.
The selfie camera is a 12MP TrueDepth camera. The aim of this is so you can rotate the phone to take wider images. It’s also the first time Apple has included 4K video recording on the selfie camera.
Apple claims that the iPhone 11 battery will last an hour longer than the iPhone XR. The device will have the iOS 13 software, and will also have a system-wide Dark Mode for the first time. The phone will be available in 64GB, 128GB or 256GB options.